Devicemaker Preventice snagged FDA clearance for its BodyGuardian system, a wireless mobile monitor that culls patients' vital signs and transmits them to physicians.
The technology, developed in collaboration with the Mayo Clinic, is attached to a patient's chest and can keep tabs on ECG, heart rate, respiration rate and activity level, transmitting data to the cloud-based Preventice Care Platform and into the hands of healthcare providers.
With FDA clearance in hand, Preventice plans to get BodyGuardian on the market by the end of the year, tapping a global patient monitoring market research group Technavio projects to reach $9.3 billion by 2014. About 2.2 million patients around the world are using similar devices, according to a Berg Insight study, and that number could swell to 4.9 million by 2016.
The FDA's indication allows Preventice to market BodyGuardian to hospitals and clinics for use in detecting and monitoring non-lethal cardiac arrhythmias, the company said.
And pairing up with Mayo Clinic gives Preventice a leg up on its competition, the company's CEO said. "Our vision at Preventice has been to maximize this industry-leading collaboration into a solution that enables health care providers to extend and improve care for their patients, where they live," Jon Otterstatter said in a statement.
Makers of wireless health monitors, called mobile body area networks, scored a victory back in May when the FCC approved a designated spectrum space for their signals. After the agency's vote, GE Healthcare ($GE) and Philips Healthcare ($PHG), two companies developing similar techs, praised the decision, saying it "could revolutionize the way patients are monitored and help eliminate the restrictive cables that tether patients to hospital beds."
- read Preventice's release
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